Dignity for All Students Act: For this generation of teens, the bullying never stops

A study conducted in 2009 by the National Education Association showed that 282,000 students were bullied every month, 50 percent of suicides are directly related to bullying and 87 percent of school shootings were to “get back at those who hurt them.”

The Dignity for All Students Act defines words such as bullying, race, color, sexual orientation, gender and harassment in legal terms, allowing the government to formally address what is legal and illegal to do to students on the property of a public school. Some might say that dealing with bullies allows a child to grow, or that the government should not shelter a child. These arguments are only valid to a point. For this generation’s teenagers, bullying never stops. They are bombarded by messages from social networking, phones, emails or other means of communication. As great as these technological advances are, kids can use them for non-stop bullying or harassment of others. In too many instances, situations such as these have pushed kids over the edge, to the point of inflicting pain on themselves, committing suicide or harming others as means for revenge, sometimes killing them.

I cannot remember the last time a student was given severe consequences for bullying, as they should. With the state government looking over the schools’ shoulders, they will be forced to take action.

-- Hank Sheehan, of DeWitt, is a freshman at Christian Brothers Academy